Letter: Ads taking over

To the editor:

I can’t help but marvel at the new television technology as I can remember a time when the radio was king, long before anyone had a TV in their home.

Almost everyone now has at least one large flat-screen television in their home. Wonderful colour, sharp detail, great sound and multifunction to boot. Who could ask for anything more?

Well, I don’t know about you but I am very close to saying goodbye to all of these wonderful improvements to a favorite form of home entertainment of many.

You may ask why would I feel this way? I would have to answer your question with a question: how many commercials can they work into a one hour program?

Good grief! I found that I can, during the commercial breaks in a one-hour program, take out the garbage, walk the dog, paint the spare bedroom, wash the car and build a boat. OK, so I exaggerated a bit but it sure does seem excessive.

This has aggravated me so much that I had to write a letter to the CRTC to find out what had changed.

This was their reply.

Effective September 2007, our regulations allowed broadcasters to increase the amount of ads per hour from 12 to 14 minutes during primetime only (7 p.m. to 11 p.m.). 

The following year this limit increased to 15 minutes per hour throughout the broadcast day (6 a.m. to midnight). By September 2009, advertising time limits were eliminated altogether.

Ahhhh, this explains what happened. Sooner or later, TV as we (used to) know it, I’m sure, will be a thing of the past as paying viewers will not be able to tolerate what seems to be one continuous infomercial, injected with a few moments of content.

Maybe listening to radio and using our imagination again, might just make a comeback.

Ron Limbrick,
Thunder Bay